Sensory coding and the causal impact of mouse cortex in a visual decision

Correlates of sensory stimuli and motor actions are found in multiple cortical areas, but such correlates do not indicate whether these areas are causally relevant to task performance. We trained mice to discriminate visual contrast and report their decision by steering a wheel. Widefield calcium im...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	eLife 2021-07, Vol.10
Main Authors:	Zatka-Haas, Peter, Steinmetz, Nicholas A, Carandini, Matteo, Harris, Kenneth D
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Animals Animals, Genetically Modified Calcium imaging Cell Line Choice Behavior cortex Cortex (frontal) Decision Making Humans Male Mice Neural coding Neuroimaging Neurological research Neurons - physiology Neuroscience optogenetics Optogenetics - methods perceptual decisions Physiological aspects Prefrontal cortex Quantitative psychology Sensory stimuli Somatosensory cortex Visual Cortex - anatomy & histology Visual Cortex - physiology Visual Perception Visual stimuli
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Summary:	Correlates of sensory stimuli and motor actions are found in multiple cortical areas, but such correlates do not indicate whether these areas are causally relevant to task performance. We trained mice to discriminate visual contrast and report their decision by steering a wheel. Widefield calcium imaging and Neuropixels recordings in cortex revealed stimulus-related activity in visual (VIS) and frontal (MOs) areas, and widespread movement-related activity across the whole dorsal cortex. Optogenetic inactivation biased choices only when targeted at VIS and MOs,proportionally to each site's encoding of the visual stimulus, and at times corresponding to peak stimulus decoding. A neurometric model based on summing and subtracting activity in VIS and MOs successfully described behavioral performance and predicted the effect of optogenetic inactivation. Thus, sensory signals localized in visual and frontal cortex play a causal role in task performance, while widespread dorsal cortical signals correlating with movement reflect processes that do not play a causal role.
ISSN:	2050-084X 2050-084X